17th May 2016
IPRT is delighted to be partner on a new European pre-trial detention project, coordinated by Fair Trials International: ‘The Practice of Pre-Trial Detention: Monitoring Alternatives and Judicial Decision-Making’.
The project, with funding from the European Commission, will provide a unique evidence-base about how pre-trial detention (PTD) is being used in practice across the EU in collaboration with Partners from 10 EU countries: Romania (APADOR), Lithuania (Human Rights Monitoring Institute), the Netherlands (Leiden University), the UK (University of the West of England), Spain (APDHE), Greece (CECL), Poland (Polish Helsinki Committee), Hungary (Hungarian Helsinki Committee), Italy (ASF – Lawyers Without Borders) and ourselves - Ireland (Irish Penal Reform Trust).
The Irish Penal Reform Trust's Country Report on Pre-trial Detention is now available here:
IPRT Country Report on Pre-trial Detention
For more details about this exciting project, visit: http://www.fairtrials.org/press/fair-trials-launches-new-pre-trial-detention-project/
More about Fair Trials International:
FTI is calling on the EU to stop excessive detention without trial, including requiring EU countries to make more use of alternatives to pre-trial detention when available and not using extradition until a case is ready to go to trial.
In 2011 the European Commission carried out a consultation on detention in the EU, and the responses showed widespread support for action from civil society and member states. The European Parliament has also called for reform of pre-trial detention in the EU, most recently in its report on the European Arrest Warrant, adopted in January 2014 and in its mid-term review of the Stockholm Programme, adopted in March 2014.
This new report is an opportunity to examine local and regional use of pre-trial detention, judicial decision-making, and the use of alternatives. Fair Trials continues to campaign to end excessive and arbitrary pre-trial detention. including a major report – published in March 2014 – Stockholm’s Sunset: New horizons for Justice in Europe – in which the adoption of EU-wide minimum standards on pre-trial detention was highlighted as a key priority for EU justice policy.
Read more on the Fair Trials International 'Justice in Europe campaign' here, and about pre-trial detention in the EU here.
Respect for rights in the penal system with prison as a last resort.